Colt Express


Colt Express is a railway-themed family board game designed by Christophe Raimbault, Illustrated by Ian Parovel and Jordi Valbuena, published in 2014 by Ludonaute and distributed by Asmodee.
The game won the 2015 Spiel des Jahres, the 2015 As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année, 4 of the 2014 Golden Geek Award, the 2015 TricTrac Bronze award, the 2015 Lys Grand Public Winner, The 2015 Gouden Ludo, and the 2015 Hungarian Board Game Award. As of November 2016, over 450,000 copies of the game have been sold according to the publisher.

Gameplay

In Colt Express, players represent bandits robbing a train at the same time; the goal is to become the richest outlaw of the Old West.
Players draw a "round" card which determines the number and order of play as well as whether to play the cards face up or face down. In the Schemin' Phase, players play cards to a central card stack following the outline on the round card. In the Stealin' Phase, the central card stack is turned over and the cards are turned over one at a time and the player who played the revealed card executes the action depicted.
Actions include "vertical movement" to move from inside the car to the roof or from the roof to inside the car, "horizontal movement" to move to the next car, or move up to 3 cars away if on the roof, "punch" to punch the player in the same car sending them to a neighboring car and causing them to drop one piece of loot, "shoot" to fire your gun at a player in a neighboring car or in your line of sight if on the roof, "steal" to take any loot on the floor, and "move marshal" to cause the marshal to move to a neighboring car and fire his gun at all bandits in the car, causing them to flee to the roof.
A game lasts for 5 rounds. A $1000 bonus is given to the first player who shoots all of their bullets, and the player with the most money is the winner.

Expansions

The expansion packs build on the original game. They come with new elements and can only be played if the gamers have the base game.

Add-on expansions

; Horses & Stagecoach
; Marshal & Prisoners
; Bandits
; Indians & Cavalry
; Playmat
; The Time Traveling Car
; North Pole Station
; The Tunnel before the Station
; Plato Event Card
; Cursed Loot
; Rock Promo
; Train Station Terrain
; The Punch Cards
; Santa's Elf

Reception

The game has mostly received positive reviews with Board Game Quest mentioning "A highly entertaining game well worthy of the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award", BGL describing it as "unique, fun and memorable 3D board gaming experience" and iSlaytheDragon describing it as "very enjoyable game to play"

Awards and Honors